Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 February (HL2185), what steps they are taking to ensure financial literacy education is actually reaching the most disadvantaged students.

It is crucial that all pupils are equipped with the knowledge and tools to manage their finances well in later life. That is why financial education is embedded in the national curriculum for mathematics at key stages 1 to 4, and in citizenship at key stages 3 and 4.

The national curriculum is compulsory for maintained schools, but all schools are measured by Ofsted on having a broad and balanced curriculum which is comparable to the national curriculum. As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools can choose how to teach financial education and they can tailor what they teach to make sure all pupils are taught what they need to know.

The Levelling Up White Paper identified 55 Education Investment Areas where the department will implement a package of measures to drive school improvement and accelerate progress towards the department’s 2030 ambition that 90% of pupils meet the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of primary school and that the average mathematics and English GCSE grade increases to a 5.

There is a range of financial education support for schools. For example, Oak National Academy, an Arm’s Length Body, has published its initial mathematics resources, with the full curriculum available by this autumn. As part of this, Oak is exploring including additional lessons in real life mathematics. Secondary citizenship resources will become available from autumn 2024 and will be complete by autumn 2025. The Money and Pensions Service has published guidance for schools and there is specialist support for fraud and tax education from the Home Office and HMRC respectively.

The department also works closely with the Money and Pensions Service which exists to help people make the most of their money and pensions, particularly those most in need and those most vulnerable to financial insecurity. The Money and Pensions Service has invested £1.1 million in financial education programmes to support children and young people in vulnerable circumstances and has published guidance to help children and young people's services to embed financial wellbeing into the services they offer.